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• How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A narrative essay tells a story. In most cases, this is a story about a personal experience you had. This type of essay , along with the descriptive essay , allows you to get personal and creative, unlike most academic writing .

Table of contents

What is a narrative essay for, choosing a topic, interactive example of a narrative essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about narrative essays.

When assigned a narrative essay, you might find yourself wondering: Why does my teacher want to hear this story? Topics for narrative essays can range from the important to the trivial. Usually the point is not so much the story itself, but the way you tell it.

A narrative essay is a way of testing your ability to tell a story in a clear and interesting way. You’re expected to think about where your story begins and ends, and how to convey it with eye-catching language and a satisfying pace.

These skills are quite different from those needed for formal academic writing. For instance, in a narrative essay the use of the first person (“I”) is encouraged, as is the use of figurative language, dialogue, and suspense.

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Narrative essay assignments vary widely in the amount of direction you’re given about your topic. You may be assigned quite a specific topic or choice of topics to work with.

• Write a story about your first day of school.
• Write a story about your favorite holiday destination.

You may also be given prompts that leave you a much wider choice of topic.

• Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself.
• Write about an achievement you are proud of. What did you accomplish, and how?

In these cases, you might have to think harder to decide what story you want to tell. The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to talk about a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

For example, a trip where everything went according to plan makes for a less interesting story than one where something unexpected happened that you then had to respond to. Choose an experience that might surprise the reader or teach them something.

Narrative essays in college applications

When applying for college , you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities.

For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay.

In this context, choose a story that is not only interesting but also expresses the qualities the prompt is looking for—here, resilience and the ability to learn from failure—and frame the story in a way that emphasizes these qualities.

An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

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If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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Essay on My Hobby for Students and Children

500+ Words Essay On My Hobby

Hobbies play a very important role in our lives. They occupy our minds when we are free and also make us happy. Hobbies are our escape from the real world that makes us forget our worries. Moreover, they make our lives interesting and enjoyable. If we look at it, all our hobbies are very useful for us. They teach us a lot of things about different stuff. They also help in expanding our knowledge.

Benefits of Having a Hobby

In today’s fast and competitive world, we often get time for ourselves. Over time, our schedule gets very dull and monotonous. That is why we need to indulge in something in between to keep our minds fresh and active. What’s better than a hobby for this? One of the main benefits of having a hobby is that it is a major stress-buster. You actually enjoy doing it and it satisfies your soul.

In other words, without a hobby, your life becomes an unhealthy cycle lacking any excitement or spark. Hobbies offer you a great opportunity to take a break and forget the worries of your life. They allow you to explore yourself and realize your potential in different areas.

Moreover, hobbies can also be a source of extra income. For instance, if you like painting, you can actually sell your art to make some extra money. Likewise, if you have a knack for dancing, you may teach dance classes to people on your holidays. This way your hobby a benefit you both spiritually and financially as well.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

My Favourite Hobby

If I were to pick one favourite hobby of mine out of the many I have, I will definitely pick gardening. I developed a taste for dancing when I was very young. The way my feet moved to the rhythm of the music convinced my parents that I was a born dancer. Dancing is very uplifting as well as economical.

I have always had a love for music and dance. However, I never realized the utter joy they bring to humans. Dancing gives us a lot of exercises. It teaches us to move our body rhythmically and feel the beat of every song. This kind of physical exercise is extremely delightful and enjoyable.

Moreover, dance also taught me how to stay strong and push my limits. I have had many injuries while dancing, too many bruises and cuts but that didn’t stop me from pursuing it further. In fact, it pushes me to do my best and realize my potential more than ever.

I have enrolled in dancing classes because I wish to make my hobby my career. I feel we all should do things which we enjoy doing. Everyone is running after money and in this race, they give up their likings and preferences. I have learned from this race and decided to not take part in it. I wish to take the road less traveled by and take on challenges most people don’t dare to.

In short, my hobby of dancing makes me feel alive and well. It is the only thing I look forward the most to. Thus, I hope to achieve my dream of being a professional dancer and making way for people who wish to make careers out of their hobbies.

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• Research Paper Examples on Life

My Hobby Essay Examples

We all know what hobbies are- you know, those fun activities we love to partake on just to distract ourselves from the stresses of life. Hobbies make us feel rejuvenated and satisfied, even when our lives are going through some disappointing phase. While others have been able to harness the power of their hobbies and converted them to money making ventures, many of us are just contented with the joy and satisfaction we derive from them. Here are few essay examples on My Hobby.

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Example 1: Listening to Music

Listening to music has always been my go to activity for all occasions. My love for music can be traced back to when I was a child. There are recorded videos of me as a child becoming hyperactive whenever music was played. I would run to the stereo, turn on the music to full volume and start running around dancing. Anyone who dared touch the sound system would face my wrath. Music was the only thing that could calm me down whenever I cried.

I always have this weird feeling that my destiny is somehow intertwined with music. In my early teenage years, my girlfriends and I would sneak into the garage, where my brother and his band mates kept their musical equipment. Then, we would pluck guitar strings and knock the drums in an effort to compose our favorite songs. I was the lead singer by the way.

Unfortunately for my brother and I, nothing much came out of the practice. It was not just me and my brother, music runs in the whole family. I remember vividly on Friday nights, we used to do karaoke sessions where everyone took turns to sing a song, including our parents. We had these sessions recorded and then sent to our neighbors for analysis.

The winner would get a prize, bought from our individual savings. We saved money on a weekly basis purely for the competition. Needless to say, we were the creepy neighbors next door, but that did not stop me from claiming most of the prizes. Eventually, we outgrew the karaoke sessions and now, I mostly do the listening rather than the singing.

Music gives me the needed refuge whenever I feel like my head is spinning and I just want to shut out everything around me. The good thing about music is that there is music for every occasion and feeling. Whenever I feel depressed, I listen to sad songs. They guide me and keep me company during those trying moments. Whenever I’m happy, I have a collection of party songs that I dance to for hours to amplify the good feeling. The beauty of music is that it can be incorporated with other hobbies. For instance, I love reading a good book, as nice orchestra music is playing in the background.

Another good thing about music is that it is universal. You do not have to understand what the musician is saying for you enjoy it. If it makes you feel good, then it is worth listening to it. I’m naturally open minded when it comes to music. I have an extensive collection of music that transcends across many genres all over the globe. It wouldn’t come as a surprise therefore to find several African songs in my phone that I really rock with and have no idea what they are talking about. However, I connect more with Country and Rock music.

Example 2: Travelling

Travelling is one of those few activities that has a kind of reset button in our lives. You go away for a few days or weeks and come back fresh and ready to take on challenges of life head on. Travelling to many people is a matter of convenience, rather than a recreation activity. They only travel when they have an issue to attend to. Travelling is also not for escapists, as many people tend to believe. I used the word ‘escapists’ not in the literary sense of the word, but rather to mean people who run away from their problems. Travelling is a hobby like any other.

Most people do not understand how moving from one place to another can be categorized together with fun activities like watching movies, swimming, dancing or drawing. While it has more challenges than other hobbies, it is more adventurous and brings the same level of satisfaction or more for those who love it.

Travelling has always been part of our family tradition. My parents taught us from an early age the value of taking vacations at least once a year. Though they wished we could go for many trips annually, we were not well off financially and my parents had to work creatively with the little they had, sometimes saving the whole year for a single trip. We could have used credit cards, but that would have only plunged us into more financial woes. My father was very strict when it came to finances and he cautioned us against using debt to purchase luxuries. If we wanted something, then it was up to us to find creative and legal ways of making money to purchase it.

Although we didn’t have much, money was never an excuse for him. My parents found creative ways to work within the budget. For instance, we would drive to our destination instead of flying and we would carry my mom’s homemade meals. Rarely did we use credit cards and if we did, it was a matter of life and death. Therefore, most of our vacations were during the December holidays. Those were the best days of my life. They were also the days that our family bonds were strengthened. We would fight and quarrel, but in the end we always came back together and worked things out.

From those trips, we learnt more about life than the years we spent at home. What I have just stated may seem farfetched to a person who does not travel much, considering the brevity of vacations, but the reality is vacations never go as planned. Vacations are far from the normal life routines of waking up in the morning, going to work/school and coming back home in the evening. In vacations, there are many risks involved. You are in a foreign land with new people and culture. You have to work with the little funds you have to make the trip as entertaining as possible, but with some level of constraint, so that your family is not stranded.

The beauty of travelling is that you can never really outgrow it. I still do vacations as an adult, although my reasons may be slightly different from my parents. Apart from the obvious reason of having a good time and distracting my mind from the daily hassles, vacations release ‘creative juices’ in me. Working as a writer, I tend to feel burnt out living in the same environment for too long. Sometimes, I need a change of scenery for my artistry to see the light of day. It is a known fact in the literary world that most of the best writers had their best ideas in foreign lands.

I occasionally go for vacations for the sole reason of learning different cultures and interacting with different people to get ideas for my literary work. Furthermore, being away from home really makes you appreciate it even more. The feeling you get after a vacation when you settle down on your couch and just relax is priceless. Travelling makes you appreciate people, their cultures and above all, it makes you appreciate your life and the little you have.

Example 3: Reading Books

I’m passionate about reading. Although I have several hobbies, such as watching movies and hiking, reading books is what resonates well with me. There are many reasons why I love reading. The first reason is it gives me a level of fulfillment. That is, books rejuvenate me. After reading a book, I feel like a whole new being and my outlook in life changes.

The second reason is books make my mind sharp. It is a known fact that books improve our brain muscles. They make us think better and improve our decision making abilities. I find it funny that whenever I utter a clever quote from a book, everyone around me would be dumbfounded.

Furthermore, books are very wide and detailed. It seems like there is a book for anything you can think of. If you want religious books, there is the Bible, the Quran and other spiritual books. There are financial books, inspirational books, cooking books, business-related books, biographies, fictional and non-fictional- the list is endless. Reading is actually among the few hobbies that you learn while doing it.

Due to my widely acquired knowledge from books, I find it easy to jumpstart a conversation with a stranger. I realized that people are more responsive when you engage them in topics they are familiar with. This is where I have an upper hand over other people, because I’m quite knowledgeable in many sphere of life thanks to books.

While most people find reading an upheaval task, reading to me is like a calling. It just comes naturally to me. I have made it my culture to read at least a chapter before I hit the sack. Sometimes I read late into the night, especially during the weekends and I only stop when my head becomes too drowsy to continue. My reading culture is further heightened by my introversion.

Most of my ‘me-time’ is actually spent on reading. This is how I get my energy back. The outside can be too overwhelming for some of us. Whenever I feel like my energy has been milked dry by the outside world, I just take a few hours of reading to rekindle my spirits again.

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